The San Diego Trolley’s long-awaited, but somewhat controversial Copper Line will begin service at 5:12 a.m. Sunday, and Metropolitan Transit System members and East County elected officials celebrated its impending arrival with a ribbon-cutting Friday.
“We have some dedicated travelers out there who have taken a ride on every single maiden trip when a new line or extension is open,” said Stephen Whitburn, MTS board chair and San Diego City Council member. “I think that we’re going to see some more of them on this trip here on Sunday.”
Trolley riders can celebrate the launch of Copper Line service at the El Cajon Transit Center from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Monday with free donuts, coffee and either a Copper Line mug or collector’s pin available at the MTS booth.
The new line will run daily 5 a.m.-11 p.m. from the El Cajon Transit Center to Santee, with stops at Arnele Avenue and Gillespie Field.
The same stops had existed before, with the Green Line running to Santee and the Orange Line running to Arnele Avenue, just one stop past the El Cajon center.
Unlike the rest of the trolley system that has separate tracks for each line, however, the Green and Orange lines shared a single track from El Cajon to Santee. That sometimes created a bottleneck and delays, and the single-track stretch has been partly blamed for the Green Line having the worst on-time performance of the Trolley’s three lines.
To create the Copper Line, new tracks were laid at the El Cajon Transit Center to connect with the tracks leading to Santee. The Copper Line ends at the El Cajon station as its southern terminus, where riders will be able to transfer to either the Green or Orange lines to continue to destinations to the west or south.
Creating a single line for the single track is intended to alleviate delays while also saving MTS about $1 million annually because of reduced maintenance and electricity cost. The savings is expected to be used to fund more support staff, security personnel and signage at the El Cajon station.
“MTS wants to make taking transit more reliable not only for East County residents, but for riders across the entire system,” Whitburn said. “With the Copper Line, we are doing just that. It creates a better, more efficient transit system. I look forward to seeing how this new line segment positively benefits the rider experience across our transit system.”
Moving the terminus from Santee to the El Cajon station also will allow the Green Line to extend service later at night, and all Sunday service will continue to El Cajon Transit Center instead of alternating trains stopping short at the SDSU Transit Center.
While the new line has benefits for the overall system, there are critics who see it as another example of East County being neglected. Besides having the only single-track stretch in the system, trolley riders on the Copper Line now have to transfer at El Cajon while in the past they could take a single train to Mission Valley, SDSU or other popular locations.
Online surveys in recent months have consistently shown about a quarter of transit users opposed the changes.
The focus was on the positive during the Friday ceremony in El Cajon, where speakers included El Cajon City Council member and MTS Board Vice Chair Steve Goble, who said the new line would enhance the city’s ability to provide fast and reliable transportation options for residents to reach work, school, health appointments and other destinations.
East County Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rick Wilson said the chamber was excited about the new line because it would allow more opportunities for people to use public transportation for work, creating more jobs and increased economic activity.